How to print from iPad without AirPrint p… (2024)

John Galt

142,274 points

Apps such as you describe get mixed reviews. Handy Print is for photos only and has no reviews.

To print directly from an iPad / iPhone you will need an AirPrint compatible printer or another device to act as a print server. That can be a Mac computer running Printopia ($19.95 with free trial) or AirPrintActivator (donation - supported). The Mac must be "on" but may be asleep for them to work. Equivalent PC options exist but you're on your own finding them.

You can also buy this standalone print server:

http://www.lantronix.com/it-management/xprintserver/xprintserver.html

These options enable you to use any printer available to your Mac, even older ones that may predate AirPrint by decades.

Otherwise you will need to buy an AirPrint printer or multifunction device.

JimHdk

28,880 points

John Galt

142,274 points

Why is this so difficult???

One reason is that the Handy Print iOS app from Sudobility is not the same as the handyPrint OS X utility from Netputing.

It is the former that has no reviews. You want the latter.

No wonder it is confusing.

iLadyOK

179 points

thats really confusing regarding the two apps, am surprised that Apple let that through, how daft?!

Welldone John Galt for clearing that up!

never heard of that app until now, personally i use print n share so it might be worth checking out there if you dont have any joy with handyprint (or at least contact the developers of handyprint, don't know what there support is like?)

Skydiver119

53,405 points

Look into third party apps like Print N Share or Print Central. I have print n share and the app has a browser in it....basically I can't go into safari and 'send' the page to the printer, but I can open the print app, navigate to the web page and then print it from inside the app.

I can also use it to print e-mails, images and files (such as documents)

marc.garcia

13 points

Hello,

I recently asked something in a different forum and I got a negative response. I came across this thread today, and I see you are stating something very interesting:

"The Mac must be "on" but may be asleep for them to work. Equivalent PC options exist but you're on your own finding them."

I'm currently looking at purchasing an AirPrint compatible printer, and a Mac mini. I specifically asked whether I could expect printopia to work while the mini was asleep, and, as I said, I was told that didn't work. For that reason, I decided I should go ahead and restrict my search to real AirPrint compatible printers, but your statement makes me reconsider that.

Can you confirm that a Mac running printopia can announce non-Airprint compatible Printers Airprint-disguised across the network while it is asleep?

Thanks

John Galt

142,274 points

marc.garcia wrote:

... Can you confirm that a Mac running printopia can announce non-Airprint compatible Printers Airprint-disguised across the network while it is asleep?

Wake on Demand is not related to Printopia in the strictest sense, and it is not as if the Mac announces the presence of its non-AirPrint printers as much as it announces the presence of itself and its available services, which would include Printer Sharing.

From Printopia's FAQ:

Q: Does Printopia require my Mac to be on?

A: Since Printopia runs on your Mac to share printers to iOS devices, the Mac must be on and logged in for Printopia to function. You may be able to take advantage of Apple's "Wake on Demand" feature if your Mac and your base station meet certain specific requirements. See Apple's Wake on Demand support page for more details on this.

About Wake on Demand: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3774. Read about how it works to understand its capabilities and limitations. Portable Macs, for example, must be plugged in to a charging source.

I could never get WoD to work reliably on earlier releases of OS X, but the feature has been working reliably since at least Lion. The Mac wakes, the print job is sent, and the Mac goes back to sleep according to the settings in Energy Saver.

Wake on Demand requires AirPort Base Stations, anything else may work but is not guaranteed.

Printopia has a trial version so you don't have to spend $20 just to find out.

marc.garcia

13 points

Hi John,

I really thank you for your thorough response, hats off!

I didn't know about the feature you are referring to. As a matter of fact, in the past I tried to do something similar with Plex Server running on my MacBook Air while running a Plex Client on my iPad, but I did not manage to wake up the Mac seamlessly.

I'll keep a close eye on this, and most probably will go with Printopia. It surely widens the options when searcing for a iOS compatible printer. If I can't get Printopia to work, another interesting option could be xPrintServer.

Thanks again John

John Galt

142,274 points

You're welcome.

Also consider the handyPrint™ utility from Netputing - other links in this thread may be outdated.

Earlier versions of HandyPrint were known as AirPrint Activator. I gave up on it because I could not get it to work reliably. As I understand it, its developer addressed those problems and I think he deserves to be commended for pursuing a fix.

$20 for Printopia is not excessive, but competition is always good, and I prefer to support small developers like Netputing.

AstroMacMan

372 points

John, is there any way of your going back and editing/fixing this comment?!

"Handy Print is for photos only and has no reviews."

I realize that you are referring to an app for an i-device (and clear this up later in the thread), but for those people who are looking for Airprinting and Netputing's HandyPrint program for the Macs, this could lead them astray... they might not even read the entire thread! Or, they might skim it, focusing on Printopia, and missing your later clarification.

In any event, in case anyone else stumbles across this, HandyPrint (the pref pane for the Mac), works fantastically well and lets you print all sorts of things-- text, photos, web pages, etc. diectly from your iPad!!

It works well-- and, no, I have no connection with the company, the developer, or the program--just a happy user!

aj1976

4 points

Handy Tom

0 points

Right on! Thanks for the tips!

We decided to try AirPrint, and were pleasantly surprised. Our company bought an HP, airprint-compatible inkjet printer, to test the printing capability of our iPhones & iPad Mini. We are pleasantly surprised with the native support, especially for scaling images, built-in to the iOS itself.

Here's what we found-

The iPhone software actually prints better than using Microsoft Office Image Manager program, on the same HP printer.

So that said, we have a workhorse Tektronix (Xerox) 750 laser that we use for drafts, a Tektronix/Xerox Color Thermal (Solid Wax Ink) for proofs, and also a Minolta. None of these are Airprint, and each printer cost north of $3000.

The cost per print on laser & solid ink/wax is about 2-4¢ a page, but we think we're putting an HP executive's first born through college using the inkjet-- I imagine is around 25¢ a page!

We're also very impressed with the ability to print articles from Bloomberg app off of the iPad. Pretty cool!

So for people who have already made the investment into higher-end printers, we feel left behind. The hardware solution looks to be the best solution (http://www.lantronix.com/it-management/xprintserver/xprintserver.html). Has anyone used it? We'd hate to setup a macmini, running 24/7 to act as a print server.

It'd be great to use the already-spent investment in these higher-end laser printers, that cost less per page, are better quality, without having to layout the print in InDesign first. Plus, they don't wrinkle like the inkjet, the AirPrint software seems to be better and less pixelated than using the Microsoft Office Imaging program.

All the printers have ethernet, USB and support PostScript natively, (No PS on the HP inkjet), so I wonder what other solutions there might be.

Any other ideas or suggestions?

rccharles

12,957 points

Have you tried?

Helper app -- /print n share

Print directly to the widest range of network or WiFi printers available in any app. Alternatively print via your computer to ALL printers including USB & Bluetooth printers. View read and display large PDF, Office & iWork files. Easily transfer & store files from the Cloud or your computer.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/print-n-share/id301656026?mt=8

Latest versions of Linux include a AirPrint drivers.

Tommy Trussell

60 points

I was quite surprised at the klunky workarounds required to make our Mac "Airprint compatible."

I have several linux computers around (running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS for example) and all I had to do was open the Printing app, go to the menu and choose Server --> Settings... (log in with administrator username and password if necessary) then click the checkbox that says "Publish shared printers connected to this system."

At that point the printer connected to the Ubuntu system was available to both the iPad and iPhone on the local network.

SO all you need to do to make a printer Airprint compatible is plug it into a computer running Ubuntu and install it. (The printer installation part is USUALLY automatic, but a few printers may require some unusual drivers or fidgety settings.)

At one time Apple took over the maintenance of the open-source CUPS software used by OS X as well as most linux systems, but strangely this is a feature they haven't included in their own Mac OS X versions?!? Weird.